Confusion
(the ronon thing is also fixed... :) )
Sheppard dove behind one of the four pillars surrounding the central pillar that Landry was roped to - he was careful to avoid the tripwires as he moved. "Ronon! why did you do this? Why did you turn!?" he shouted.
Ronon had remained unmoving, and had followed sheppard's dive with his eyes, not his gun. "They offered me more money, Sheppard! enough to let me retire and stay low for the rest of my life!" he shouted, as he fired a red bolt from his gun at Sheppard's pillar.
Sheppard retorted by firing blindly round the side, forcing Ronon into cover too. "We were brothers, Ronon, best friends - why would you give all that up for some money?" Sheppard shouted back.
"You've gone soft, John. I knew you would when you betrayed us and left us without a squad leader..." Ronon said, barely audible.
Sheppard looked around the room - so many trip wires plastered to the walls, holding Landry in place - how was he going to get around to hit Ronon from the side? "Is that so?" he said without really thinking, trying to keep Ronon's mind on the conversation as he glanced around the room even quicker.
"You always were good in a fight, John - but we're not even warmed up!" he shouted as they both jumped around the corners of their pillars, guns pointed at eachother, as the same plan had obviously cropped up in both their heads - and now they were back at square one.
A strange sound met their ears - that of a blade slicing through flesh - and a few seconds later, bringing a look of shock to both their faces - Ronon's arm dropped to the floor, severed at the elbow.
A few seconds went by with both of them staring at the stub with looks of awe on their faces, before it began to gush with blood uncontrollably, sending his arm flying. "What?! My hand!" Ronon shouted, as if only just noticing.
Sheppard looked away - glancing around the room as fast as he could to see what had caused it - and a split second later, the sound met his ears again - but this time, the blade was slicing through - the tripwires! he thought, and watched them flick back to their explosives as each wire was cut around the room. Landry fell to the floor as he was no longer being held up, and the explosions sent Ronon and Sheppard flying into opposite walls.
They both got to their feet, Ronon gathering his severed hand off the floor as he got up - and they saw it. Invisible at first, but appearing with a loud Screech, stood a - well, what is it? sheppard thought.
A fully armoured cyborg - but in human form? - its plates the colours of dull blue and orange - stood before him, its single orange robotic eye at the centre of the faceplate pinging on as it looked straight at Sheppard.
"Jumper Technology?! can't you even die right!?" Ronon shouted. The cyborg looked right at him, obviously striking fear into him as the blood-soaked blade steadied in his hand.
"You were lucky... We'll meet again!" He shouted at Sheppard, turning and running from the room.
The cyborg looked back at Sheppard. He raised his gun at it, wondering what the hell it was - "Who are you!?" he shouted at it.
The Cyborg Ninja's eye pinged black then orange again, as it walked steadily towards him. Sheppard backed away, hitting the wall - he began to sweat, and his gun began to shake. "I'm like you." It said in a deep, robotic, strangely familiar kind of voice. "I have no name."
Sheppard glanced at Landry as he moaned back into existence on the floor. "That... that exoskeleton!" he said, lying there. Sheppard looked at the Cyborg ninja, wondering what the hell he meant. It glanced over to Landry, then back at Sheppard. They eye glowed even brighter, then he disappeared again into invisibility with the same loud screech. Sheppard didn't have a clue where it had gone, but it was no longer there.
"Landry! Landry, are you ok!?" he shouted over, afraid to move from his spot. Deadly silence had filled the room.
Landry groaned a sound as if he was ok, and got to his feet. "Landry, what the hell was that Ninja thing?" he said, forgetting to lower his gun until he noticed himself still holding it up.
"We were here to oversee Atlantis' nuclear armament capability tests," Landry began. Sheppard backed against the wall, and lowered himself to the floor, still not believing what he had seen.
"It was all our fault - SGC put Fox Hound in defence of the base because we thought they would defend it to the last breath. They betrayed us. Fox Hound had their own scientists... Medical research... They weren't just a unit anymore, but they'd grown into what could be a PMC, running itself, and the hostile's takeover was just a matter of time..." he said.
"You mean you knew this could happen?" Sheppard said, half annoyed, half believing him.
"Yes... that's not the best of it, either... We'd received reports that they were doing their own tests - illegal in their own form, against human rights - and from these experiments, That Cyborg was born." Landry told him.
"You mean that thing was once human!?" Sheppard said, glancing up at him questioningly.
"Possibly... and it was employed as a defensive measure for Fox Hound to use, but it turned against its creators some time ago, and it's been giving them major problems ever since." Sheppard let his face fall into his hands - this hand been one hell of a day so far.
Teyla came running in, her rifle at the ready. "John! are you ok? what happened?" she said, looking at the scorch marks and shattered pillars around the room in awe.
"Bit of an explosion. No worries, Landry's safe," he said as if this was a throwaway comment. Teyla looked at him.
"John, you're bleeding. are you sure you're alright?" she asked concernedly, lowering her rifle and kneeling down at the side of him.
"After everything so far, I'm surprised that I'm only bleeding." he said sarcastically. "Anyways, let's get Landry and... you know... Woolsey to exfil while we can. This place'll be crawling with Fox Hound after the racket we just made," he said, lifting the now slumped Landry onto his shoulder.
"Wait... you can't go yet..." Landry said, slightly cringing.
"Why? what's wrong?" Sheppard said, moving to the doorway, looking out of it and glancing both ways.
"The terrorists... they know my password..." He said weakly.
Sheppard's senses felt like they'd just got ten times sharper. "What!? you talked!?" he shouted, looking at the side of Landry's face, Teyla's sounds of confusion behind them.
"I never could resist torture... was never very good at it..." he said, even quieter now. "A lot of my bones are shattered, John. I'm not making it out of here." Landry said, his words hitting him and Teyla like bricks.
"Well, I didn't think you would anyway," Said Sheppard, sounding as if he was giving up. Teyla gasped behind him, but Landry just laughed - Sheppard put him down and sat him up by the wall.
"I haven't told you about the nukes... they're not on their own..." he said, his voice failing drastically now.
"Wait, what do you mean? how are they not on their own?" he asked, desperately needing answers.
"The government funded one last thing... A tank... Not just any tank - a bipedal one. Capable of launching a nuclear strike from anywhere on earth... they called it... Metal Gear." He said, before his head dropped to one said, his face expressionless, his eyes open. Teyla began to cry. Sheppard just closed his eyes. This was really going to be a lousy day.